08-05-2019, 08:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2019, 09:03 PM by Special Bits.)
At Easter we did the Lands End again. Big adventure as ever, started from Bridgewater at 23.15. Popped a core plug in the head at about 1am going up Porlock Hill. Didn't realize what had happened until the engine started to run rough and smoke was coming out from under the bonnet! I feared the engine was properly "cooked" but once it had cooled down to merely burning hot, we managed to bodge the hole up with a washer, bolt and plastic metal. By this time we had lost best part of an hour and were running about 45 minutes late. The rest of the night was like doing a slow road rally. Flat out across Exemoor in the small hours of the morning is quite interesting in a 7.
By the time we got to the breakfast halt we had made up most of the lost time, and we were still clean. Off we went into Cornwall and some of the more difficult hills. All of which we also cleaned. On our way down towards Blue hills the clutch started playing up and gear changes were getting ever more difficult, but with one hill left to do we battled on, not willing to loose any more time. That proved to be a big mistake! At Peranporth time control we decided to do Old Blue hills, with a tricky tarmac restart, rather than the now very rough modern Blue Hills section, which is optional in class 0. To cur a long story short, the clutch did its worst on the restart, the release bearing sticking then releasing violently, twice. The second time we both rolled back, and stalled, most definitely a FAIL. So that was how we lost our Tin Medal on the Lands end and this years chance for a Trio, having won a Tin on the Exeter (you have to get three Tin medals on consecutive MCC trials for a trio)
Hopefully I will be able to post the bits of in car video I got below.
By the time we got to the breakfast halt we had made up most of the lost time, and we were still clean. Off we went into Cornwall and some of the more difficult hills. All of which we also cleaned. On our way down towards Blue hills the clutch started playing up and gear changes were getting ever more difficult, but with one hill left to do we battled on, not willing to loose any more time. That proved to be a big mistake! At Peranporth time control we decided to do Old Blue hills, with a tricky tarmac restart, rather than the now very rough modern Blue Hills section, which is optional in class 0. To cur a long story short, the clutch did its worst on the restart, the release bearing sticking then releasing violently, twice. The second time we both rolled back, and stalled, most definitely a FAIL. So that was how we lost our Tin Medal on the Lands end and this years chance for a Trio, having won a Tin on the Exeter (you have to get three Tin medals on consecutive MCC trials for a trio)
Hopefully I will be able to post the bits of in car video I got below.